Teased back in October 2020, the Caves&Cliffs update for Minecraft was a major shift for the game. The big change was that the underground areas of the game’s worlds would be completely transformed. And now, with the launch of Minecraft Snapshot 21w10a in Java Edition, there’s another new biome to explore. Here’s what the new snapshot includes, and what to expect from it and Mojang.
Lush caves and new life
The Lush cave biomes include all manner of new and exciting life for Minecrafters to explore. The new Lush Caves added in the Caves&Cliffs update include watery and plant-based life galore. The Lush Cave’s waters also include rather cute little Axolotl. And yes, you can tame them and take them back to your base, just make sure to have some water for them to enjoy.
Along with that, come a bunch of other fixes to the game, and some pretty notable changes. Ore distribution and terrain generation got a big overhaul thanks to the new cave biomes. There’s a lot more than just cute little critters to find here now. A bunch of bugs around ore generation and distribution have been fixed as well, as part of the changes to these ore spawns. Players will find that Lapis and Coal are a bit easier to deal with and find now.
Along with the new biome, comes a wave of other changes and fixes. Along with the new areas to plum through, you’re also getting shader support in Vanilla versions of the PC release. The biggest change here is that the backend code for the core game files has been swapped over to support OpenGL Core 3.2, allowing for more intense graphical effects. Systems not able to support OpenGL Core 3.2, usually those below the minimum spec, will have a harder time running the most recent patch. Shaders can also be swapped out with Resource packs, allowing modders even more options to fool around with.
Minecraft Snapshot 21W10A Patch Notes
Below are the full patch notes for the newest snapshot. Look through and see what you can notice that’s changed.
NEW FEATURES IN 21W10A
- Added Lush Caves underground biome!
- Added Cracked Deepslate Bricks and Cracked Deepslate Tiles
- There is now an Infested variant of Deepslate found in the underground
- While they will not generate in the world by default, Deepslate versions of copper, emerald and coal ores have been added for use by creators of maps and data packs
LUSH CAVES BIOME
- Moss covers the floors and ceilings
- Spore Blossoms grow from the ceiling and drip particles
- Contains clay pools with Dripleaf Plants grow out of them
- Contains Azalea Bushes and Flowering Azalea Bushes
- The Azalea Tree loves to have its roots in lush caves, so if you find an Azalea Tree (either overground or in a cave) you know there is a Lush Cave beneath you
- Cave Vines with Glow Berries grow from the ceiling and light up the caves
CHANGES IN 21W10A
- Cobbled Deepslate can now be smelted into Deepslate
- Deepslate can now be placed along any axis
- Lightning rods can now be waterlogged
- Fossils in the deepest part of the underground generate with Deepslate Diamond Ore instead of Coal Ore
- The textures of Deepslate and some of the ores have been updated
ORE DISTRIBUTION
Overworld ore generation has been tweaked.
- More emeralds in mountains
- More lapis
- Less copper, gold, and Redstone
- Smaller diamond blobs, but slightly more frequent. Less diamond ore overall though
- Less iron, and it generates lower down
- Reduced air exposure for coal
TECHNICAL CHANGES IN 21W10A
- The game now runs using OpenGL 3.2 core profile
- The maximum size that slimes can be summoned with is now 128
- The give command can only give up to 100 stacks of items at a time (e.g. 6400 stone or 100 iron swords)
OpenGL
Rendering is now using OpenGL 3.2 core profile. All fixed function rendering has been replaced with shader based rendering.
SHADERS
Shaders are now included for all supported render states. Any shader except for the blit shader can also be replaced in resource packs. For now replacing these shaders is not officially supported and the way it works may change in the future. The current rendering engine uses a system similar to the post processing shader pipeline. There are some differences between both system that cater to slightly different requirements.
FIXED BUGS IN 21W10A
- MC-29318 – Client misses inventory updates while player is manipulating items – causes invisible items
- MC-84121 – Shape of glow effect is based on mob’s base layer
- MC-87019 – Only visible slots are updated clientside when you are inside an inventory
- MC-154094 – Lectern running /clear turns items into ghost items
- MC-175964 – Setblock command run by book in lectern to clear inventory run in command block causes ghost items
- MC-201316 – The /give command can create so many items that the game will freeze
- MC-207818 – Placing a sign from the offhand closes the sign UI immediately
- MC-208301 – /clear does not properly affect the item on the mouse pointer after crafting it
- MC-210408 – /spawnpoint allows players to set their spawnpoint to out-of-bounds coordinates, which crashes the game when trying to respawn
- MC-211666 – Guardians attack invisible axolotls
- MC-212127 – Normal ink sac and glow ink sac are not grouped in the creative inventory
- MC-212144 – Subtitles refer to Glow Item Frame as “Item Frame”
- MC-212168 – Ctrl + Pick Block doesn’t copy block state “lit”
- MC-212236 – Cannot visually critical-hit a glow squid (No sound/particles)
- MC-212314 – Glow squid remains dark even if there is a light source block next to it
- MC-212325 – Glow Squid entity data (potion effects, custom name, …) does not get saved
- MC-214629 – FOV decreases when underwater regardless of FOV Effects accessibility setting
- MC-214781 – Lava does not generate at the very bottom of noise caves
- MC-214784 – Fossils can generate floating in caves
- MC-214836 – Water caves cause land to be excessively flooded
- MC-214844 – Bedrock can be exposed to the air at the very bottom of the new caves
- MC-214970 – Phantoms continously make too much flapping sounds
- MC-215194 – Structure blocks do not work below y=0
- MC-215838 – There is currently no way to craft deepslate tiles and deepslate bricks
- MC-215850 – Deepslate Tile Wall comes before Deepslate Brick Wall but Deepslate Bricks come before Deepslate Tiles in creative inventory
- MC-215939 – Emerald ore spawns in lower frequencies than it should above y=100
- MC-216136 – Polished deepslate slab isn’t grouped with the other deepslate slabs in creative inventory
- MC-216363 – Crash upon replacing soul sand or magma with the other under a tall bubble column using /setblock
- MC-216735 – Stone Lapis Ore generating in Deepslate
- MC-216736 – Lava lakes generate exposed in caves
- MC-216765 – Coal ore can generate below Y=0 when attached to a fossil
- MC-216817 – Inconsistency: Cobbled deepslate cannot be smelted back into deepslate
- MC-218139 – Spectator vision bug